Possible trigger* Scary night in the ER - Vent

My Ellie got her two month vaccines. We were told that she could possibly get a fever as I did every time I received vaccines as an infant. She felt warm so I checked her temp rectally a couple times to confirm a fever. Which she had a rectal fever of 101.5. pedi said not to worry or even treat til 102. Shortly after she pooped and there was a little bit of blood in it so I called her pediatrician after hours who instructed to take her to the ER. We get to the ER and they chalked up the blood in the diaper to her bum being irritated due to the rectal thermometer and having a few runny poops (she currently has a cold) but they focused on the fever. They said vaccines wouldn't cause that high of a fever... Even though the vaccine hand out said it could? My baby had a catheter to get a urine sample and poked three times to try and get a vein for blood. They couldn't get the vein to draw so they did a foot poke. The nurse came in, said everything was good, white blood cells a little low which was most likely from the cold and that we were good to go! Wrong. The doctor walks in with another iv in hand and my heart sinks. He says that there were two abnormalities in her blood that they HAD to rule out. He kept saying that. So I finally say ok well you keep saying you have to rule it out so what was wrong? And he says "I guess I'll tell you. Her white blood cell count was low as well as her platlets. We need to redraw her blood from a vein and make sure she doesn't have leukemia" Literally in that moment it felt like my entire world stopped. Everything was just white and fuzzy. They came in and finally got a good vein to draw blood from and sent it out. After an hour they come back in and say that her platlets are perfectly normal, leukemia screening came back negative, and her white blood cell count is actually high so they are going to give antibiotics to be safe. The nurse nonchalantly says that foot pokes typically give false data in infants especially since circulation isn't great. I got kind of mad seeing as they knew those tests come back bad A LOT but still did it that way instead of bringing in a better tech to find a vein. All in all I am so thankful my little girl is ok and has nothing more than a little virus. The pain I felt when those words left his mouth was indescribable. It is so hard to be strong in a moment that drains the life out of you.

Comments (4)

I'm sorry for what you went through. Hope your LO (little one) feels better. My toddler and 2 months old girls have a cold at the moment and it's draining me. Haven't made a decision to take them in yet as they seem a little better.

There was another mom on here that was told she might have cancer based on faulty ER labs. It was a false positive. If something comes up abnormal they should absolutely redraw but they really should phrase it as “we want to double check these abnormal results” not “you/your child might have cancer”.

Yes the ER doctors sure don't sugar coat things.. even for a child! Wish they would be more sensitive. Thank you for the kind words, little girl is doing fantastic today and has not had a fever since early this morning ❤️

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